Column by Jessica Gregory

It’s a term that I’ve recently become acquainted with — underemployed.  With graduation looming on the horizon for many UK students, this may be a term that will soon be integrated into many college graduates’ vocabulary.  Underemployed refers to a state of employment that is below your qualifications.

With rates of over 68 percent of the population attending college straight out of high school, this could possibly create a climate overwhelmed with college degrees and a severe disparity between jobs available to college graduates. This culminates in a very frightening reality — could it be that there are simply not enough jobs requiring a degree since our generation is attending college in record numbers?

More people than ever possess a bachelor’s degree or higher — over 25.6 percent of the population as of 2000.  If more people than ever have a bachelor’s degree, this means employers can be more selective about who they hire. Also, they can pay new hires less than they did when the bachelor’s degree was a rare commodity.

Outsourcing is causing a serious detriment to Americans trying to enter professional fields, particularly careers in high tech, consumer customer relations and computer software.

Jobs cut in 2005 due to outsourcing totaled over 587,792, according to the U.S Department of Labor and Forrester Research.  These could have been jobs suited for would be young professionals just graduating or Americans looking for mobility in their current job. The main reason behind outsourcing falls back to values of the corporations; they are primarily engaged in short term benefits and profiteering.  Their outlook is myopic and their short term profits are trumped by the economic repercussions their greed causes.

How can an economy grow if the people fueling it cannot survive? Cutting jobs and sending them overseas will only further the gap between rich and poor in America. Students entering the job market should be aware of corporate cuts and booming numbers of those possessing a college degree.

A restructuring of educational ideology would greatly benefit incoming students.  Education is often seen as a ‘cure all’ for problems of youth in America.  Students are indoctrinated to believe that higher education will be their ticket to affluence or at the very least a better life and job.

I am a proponent of higher education, but there should be a tailored focus on the individual, not a mass migration from high school to college lecture halls.

The lack of planning behind crowded lecture halls can lead to equally misguided graduates.  Getting a college degree does not guarantee happiness, affluence or a career.

A college degree is, however, an excellent tool for your life skills development and career enhancement.  A trajectory path with a definite end is now more than ever quintessential for career success.  It is not plausible to place the enormous task of developing a professional career path on one person.

Starting college with a different mentality could help individuals with their struggle for professional and identity solidarity. High school and college counselors should place more of an emphasis on a definite end to college education, one interspersed with self-exploration and a solid career path at the end.  We are taught that education will be the key to a better life, but this one size fits all approach can only go so far.  Education gives us options, but it does not a guarantee success.  Skills such as networking, career trajectory planning and knowing thyself can help equip the disenchanted college graduate for less frustration and more professional success.